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SSTN # 26 - March 29, 2004


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IN THIS ISSUE OF THE SSTN e-NEWSLETTER:


1) Resurrection Egg Game
2) Bullies in Classroom
3) 2-5 Year Olds - Class Management

Amazing Miracles of the Bible

4) PTL!
5) Wanting to Teach
6) 2-5 year old management

Super Heroes of the Bible

7) Ugly Baby in Passion
8) Scenes from Passion
9) Banks?


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1) Resurrection Egg Game

Here's a new way to use the Resurrection Egg Holders:
(For 12 or less children) Cut the egg-shapes out and DON'T color them.
Place the uncolored pictures into plastic eggs and hide them with
candy-filled eggs. Once the children find the eggs have them color the
pictures. (If one child finds more egg-pictures than the other children,
evenly divide them.) When the twelve pictures are colored, tell the Easter
story using the egg pictures and a child-friendly Bible.

Learn more on this page:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/craft_resurrection_eggholders.html 


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2) Bullies in Classroom

On a Sunday I decided that I wanted to approach a subject with our teens
that I know affects them on a daily basis. I found a movie entitled "The
Wounded Spirit" This movie dealt with the true life experiences of a man
by the name of Frank Peretti who, as a child, dealt with the issue of
bullying.

I think in this discussion with the kids, I learned just as much they did.
This was the first movie that I have ever been to where the kids were so
spellbound (well maybe one time I had to remind one child to put away his
gameboy) that you could have heard a pin drop. I thought that once the
movie ended that we would have a discussion for about 10 minutes – never
in a million years did I think that the class would start at 9:30 and not
end until 12PM. Then I knew that we had "Hit upon a subject" that needed
to be covered.

I would highly recommend this movie. The movie was actually Frank Paretti
giving a talk to 5,000 people about the experiences which he encountered
as child who was bullied by discussing from the aspect of a Christian.

If this is something you have ever thought of doing with your teens.... I
would suggest to start with the Movie "The Wounded Spirit". I'm glad I
did.

I never realized that there is so many resources out their for the teens
until "I got myself out of the box" with rotation - I am now able to look
beyond the obvious to bring these issues to the Teens.

Nancy Fidler
Sunday Kids Club Director

--from SSTN: you can find the leaders guide for the movie in our bookstore
at:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/bookstore.html 
Just type the title into the search box.

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3) Two to Five Year Olds - Class Management

I have only 3 -- all boys -- in my 3-5year old class and it IS hard to
keep their attention.  I have found they prefer hands-on activities and
games more than coloring and crafts, although this may be different for
other children.  Recent successful activities have been sailing boats on a
bowl of water, hammering nails into wood and playing with plastic jungle
animals (Noah's ark); shopping with toy food and painting with
scratch-and-sniff paint (Daniel and friends not eating the king's food);
and acting out stories with costumes and/or masks (David the shepherd boy,
anything with kings or soldiers)  Do an internet search under preschool
and/or Sunday School and/or the theme or story, and you will find many
wonderful ideas (including a lot on this site!).  If you can't find
anything for a specific story, try the theme, such as obedience, courage,
church, family, etc.

I have recently started asking questions at the end of the story and
giving a prize (small candy, sticker, etc.) for answering, or attempting
to answer.  Even the children that can't answer the questions get the
reinforcement of hearing the main facts again.

Puppets and storybooks work very well with this age group, also.  My boys
sit much more quietly when I read a story than they do when I tell one.

Also, many familiar games can be adapted for the story.  Red light/green
light can be Obey/Disobey, Melt/Freeze, etc.  Mother May I or Simon Says
can be done with a name or title (King May I) that goes with the story.

There is a huge difference in the attention span and understanding between
the 2 year olds and 5 year olds.  If possible, I would split up at least
some of the activities by age or ability level.

And yes, an assistant does make a difference.  Even in my small class, it
would be much easier with someone else in the room.

Good luck!  This is a fun age and a wonderful time to start teaching basic
Biblical truths!


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Amazing Miracles of the Bible

God’s glory and love are revealed through the miracles he performed and
were fully realized when he came to earth in the form of a man to save
mankind. By studying the miracles of the Bible children will gain a better
understanding of God’s love and faithfulness and how he continues to be
loving and faithful in miraculous ways to his people today. Great for
rotation-type programs!

In the Curriculum Creatives section:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/curriculum.html 


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4) PTL!

Hi everyone,
    A super quick update as I have so much I want to get done today. I
went to the neurologist this morning and the blood clot is completely 100%
gone. I am sooo totally excited and thankful right now and am floating
around on cloud 9 for the time being, when I come back down to Earth I am
sure a few things will sink in, but that will be awhile. LOL
    I'm on a blood thinner for six months, to keep this from happening
again, and then on Aspirin every day for who knows how many years after
that. All though, it's a very small trade off if you ask me.
    Got to get going for now, I have got to clean my room today or I am
going to lose it with myself. LOL
Prayer truly is powerful...but then again I already knew that, and I am
sure all of you did too, or you wouldn't have been praying!
Love in Christ,
Sarah Hearn
living_life_my_way@earthlink.net

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5) Wanting to Teach

Dear "Wanting to Teach"
  You are in a very delicate situation.  I use to teach Youth Church and
my husband gave me a very hard time.  I can remember some times even
crying when I could not go to church.  As a matter of fact he would become
very angry with me and there would be arguments.  You must pray for your
husband's salvation.  Otherwise your children may not have a Sunday School
Teacher every Sunday morning or you may feel forced to give up teaching
all together shortly after you start.  You mentioned you lived in South
Africa, I live in America, but the situations sound very similar to me. 
You have a servant-attitude and this is pleasing to God.  Pray and ask God
the best way to approach the second situation you mentioned concerning
your co-worker.
Signed "Praying for you from America"

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6) 2-5 year old management

Barbara, I certainly can understand the stress you are feeling with your
class.  Last year, I taught the pre-school class consisting of 13 boys and
4
girls, and learned very quickly that expecting them to sit still for great
periods of time was not only totally unrealistic for them but stressful
for
me, too.  So I adapted.  What worked for me was teaching the story through
song, movement, lots of visual aids, puppets and very simple crafts.
Children at this age need a very structured environment, so I made sure
that
the structure of the lesson was the same every week.  That is, we started
with the Welcome Song, Attendance was taken, Story Warm-up, Song Time
(included Body Movement), Lesson (2-3 minute story read), Craft Time, Song
Time, Good-bye Prayer.

If the children's attention started to sway especially during Story
Warm-up
and Lesson time, I would stop whatever I was doing and say: -

Children where are your knees, where is your neck, wiggle your fingers,
where are your toes, where is your nose, wiggle your nose, pat your tummy,
open your mouth, close your mouth, cover your ears, open your ears, hold
your hands in prayer.  Good job everybody, we are almost finished our
bible
story today, so lets keep our voices quiet, our ears wide open to hear
God's
good news, and our hands in prayer.  Thank you.  (Each time I would do
this,
I would do it faster.  They had a good giggle, then we moved on.)

For Craft Time - I found out early, the simpler the craft the better.  If
the craft required cutting, I would draw the pattern with a thick marker
so
it would be easy for them to follow the cutting line.  When it comes to
gluing - Glue sticks are easier for the children to hold on to.  If we
needed to use White Glue - I would squeeze blobs of glue on paper plates
and
give them each a popsicle stick to use to spread the glue. Lots of
coloring
and stickers!  The children that finished earlier than the rest had the
options of either staying seated at the table to play with play dough,
have
a snack (fish crackers - always a hit), or to play quietly at the toy
centre.  If a child was having a tuff morning and didn't want to
participate, I give the child the of option of going back to see his/her
parents or it sit quietly and play at the toy centre.  Usually they opted
to
play with the toys and by class end, he/she was usually participating in
some form.

The other thing I found most helpful was arranging the tables or desks in
a
'U' shape.  The children are seated on the outside of the 'U' and I would
stand in the inside of the 'U'.  This way if a child needed assistance, I
would be centralized and just turn around to help those at the craft table
or step out of the 'U' shaped desk area to help a child at the toy centre.

As well, I use a wonderful resource to supplement my existing curriculum
called "Playful Songs & Bible Stories for Preschoolers"  It uses the power
of simple melodies and music to help children learn, remember, and love
God's Word (2CD's included).  Every Bible story provides a finger play for
children to learn the story as they move their bodies.  Interactive Bible
stories give the details and heart of each Bible story as you read the
stories and lead children in responding and reacting.  It has made
teaching
so much fun. It is published by Group Publishing Inc. and its ISBN is
0-7644-2534-X. 

To conclude, having such a repetitive sequence structure each week not
only
helped the children quickly learn the routine and my expectations, but
they
became anxious to find out what we were going to do next week.

Yours in Christ,
Connie,
Edmonton, Canada

--from SSTN: you can find "Playful Songs & Bible Stories for Preschoolers"
in our bookstore by typing the title into the search box at:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/bookstore.html 


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Super Heroes of the Bible

"Super Heroes of the Bible" is a special midweek program which examines
the lives of some famous and not-so-famous people who had willing hearts
to obey God. And by obeying him, they were used in miraculous and powerful
ways to help change the course of human history. It is the goal of this
series to build FAITH, COURAGE, and OBEDIENCE in the lives of children,
and to change the world for Jesus Christ.

To learn more, go to this page:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/curriculum.html 
(you may need to copy and paste this address to your browser)


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7) Ugly Baby In Passion

In regards to the letter from Cathy Bodell, ChristianityToday.com had an
article on this plus several other related articles. 
"When asked why he portrayed Satan—an androgynous, almost beautiful being
played by Rosalinda Celentano—the way he did, Gibson replied: "I believe
the Devil is real, but I don't believe he shows up too often with horns
and smoke and a forked tail. The devil is smarter than that. Evil is
alluring, attractive. It looks almost normal, almost good—but not quite."
The entire article can been read from:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/news/040301-passion.html

Debbi - Cortland, Ohio
 

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8) Scenes from Passion

Cathy, in response to your questions I found these answers to your
questions from the site http://www.passion-movie.com/
 
(A) Artists through the centuries have often portrayed Jesus as a child in
the arms of Mary. In "The Passion", there is a shot during the scourging
scene, where the "satan" character is seen holding what looks like a
grotesque-looking child. This depiction represents an "anti" Madonna and
Child - it is Satan mocking not only Jesus and Mary, but it is also Satan
mocking the coming of Christ into the world as a man suggesting it was
futile. 
 
A) As seen throughout the film, there is not only an emphasis on Jesus'
suffering, but on his blood. That scene is symbolic of the importance of
Christ's blood as understood as a sacrifice.
 
Love Leanne
ljp@ihug.com.au

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9) Banks?

I would like to make some banks with Campbell soup cans for a fundraising
project for our church orphanage.  I need to find the plastic slotted lids
that will fit a soup can.  Anybody have any ideas?

--from SSTN: You could use the short Pringles cans, they already have
lids.
 
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